


Braiding Her Hair

by ericsonclan



Series: OG World [14]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:56:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23306416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ericsonclan/pseuds/ericsonclan
Summary: Violet visits Prisha and sees how she's adjusting to her injury.
Relationships: Prisha/Violet (Walking Dead: Done Running)
Series: OG World [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1815361
Kudos: 4





	Braiding Her Hair

**Author's Note:**

> (by Laura)

As Violet made her way down the hallway, she wondered if she should turn back. She didn’t have any pretext for why she was going to see Prisha, and she was awful at small talk. What was she going to do once she got to the room, just stare at Prisha like a goon? Violet paused her walk, looking around her. No one had seen her come in here, right? If Louis spotted her, she’d never hear the end of it.

Still, it didn’t feel right leaving Prisha all alone. She’d been with them for a few weeks now, but she hadn’t socialized much. She slept for two whole days when they brought her to Ericson. Even once she regained consciousness, she was in and out of sleep constantly, fighting a fever and the immense pain of her shattered arm. They’d had next to no pain meds to give her. Ruby had begun to grow oregano and basil for fever reduction and ginger for pain relief as soon as they had regained the greenhouse, but it was nothing compared to what something like morphine could do.

Prisha hadn’t been willing to say much about what had happened to her. She only said that her group had been attacked and as far as she knew they had all been killed. No one pressed her to share more after that. They’d seen Prisha come outside a few times to grab food, but most nights one of them volunteered to bring dinner up to her once they had all finished and she had failed to come down. There had been talk amongst themselves of what was to be done next, but the truth was no one knew what the right choice was. For now, they would give Prisha as much time as she needed to physically heal. As far as her inner trauma went…. it was up to Prisha whether she would let them in.

She was only a few yards away from Prisha’s door. She should just go for it. Violet approached the door, raised a hand to knock, then paused. Should she say something instead?

There was a loud clatter from behind the door and swearing. Without thinking, Violet opened the door and stepped in. “Prisha? Are you OK?”

Prisha stood by the desk fuming, her eyes trained on the floor. A black brush lay there. Was that what had made such a loud noise?

As Violet looked at Prisha again, she thought she could see tears forming at the corners of her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“I asked Ruby for a brush since after three weeks in a braid my hair looks like it belongs to a mongoose. Silly me though, I forgot that I would need two hands to rebraid my hair, just like I need two fucking hands for everything in this goddamn world!” Her chest had started heaving with emotion and her breath was coming out in little gasps. She had to calm her down.

“Y’know what? I can braid your hair. I may not know a fucking thing about hair care, but it’s just a braid, right?” Violet bent down to pick up the brush. “You can sit down on the chair or the bed and I’ll get it done,”

Prisha looked dazed. Shakily, she nodded then sat down on the bed facing the closet, pulling her legs up against her chest and wrapping her right around them, her left cradled uselessly by her side. Violet awkwardly crawled on top of the mattress too and sat behind her, brush poised to go. She stared at Prisha’s sleek black hair which cascaded down to the small of her back, shining in the candlelight. Violet found herself at a loss of where to start. “Umm, remind me of the first step,”

“You need to separate my hair into three equal sections,”

“Right,” Cautiously, Violet reached a hand forward and grasped a section of hair, using the brush to separate it from the rest of the hair. Prisha had somehow been able to brush through all of her hair one-handed, so there were no tangles or snags. Violet put one section of hair in front of Prisha’s left shoulder (being careful to avoid touching the bandages), one over her right, and left one down the middle.

“Do you need the next step?”

“Uh, yeah,”

“Start with the section on the left side and cross it over the middle section. Then take the right section and cross it the other way, then bring the middle section over. Then just keep repeating those motions,”

“Alright. Here goes nothing,”

Violet grabbed the left section of hair, attempted to drape it over the middle section, lost hold of it, and had to separate the sections again. Internally swearing, she started again. He girls were silent as she got the braid started. Prisha cleared her throat.

“Did you used to have longer hair… before?”

“When I was little. My grandma used to put it in braids whenever she took me to church. I hated it,” Violet froze. “Not that braids are bad! Just on me. She did them so tight,” _Great job, Violet. Grade A small talk._

“My mother braided my hair when I was little, but she taught me how to do it myself from a pretty young age. She said that braided hair was a sign of dignity for a woman.” Prisha reached up a hand, fiddling with a stray strand by her face. “I know it would be more practical for me to cut it, but something just stops me each time I consider it. Who knows. Maybe it’s just my way of saying fuck the walkers and fuck this entire shitty world. They can take a lot from me, but how I do my hair is still my own fucking choice. I may not control what I eat or where I sleep or…” She took a shaky breath. “Or the well-being of my own body, but dammnit, I still have my hair,”

“That’s sorta badass,”

Prisha snorted. “Thanks, I guess. Everything’s going to shit and here I am being Indian Rapunzel,”

“It works on you,”

“Thanks,” Prisha turned slightly so she could look back at Violet. “You know, I can see why you hated them. The braids, I mean. Your hair looks good short,”

Violet could feel her face heating up and her stomach clenching. She leaned forward to look like she was focusing intently on the braiding.

“If by ‘good’ you mean ‘looks like some hay that a cow shit on’ then yeah, I guess it looks good,”

Prisha scoffed. “No, it’s not like that at all. It looks like… y’know that tall grass that grows beside rivers? The kind with those wheat kernels on the end that you can’t eat? Then autumn comes and they turn this warm, light gold tone and just sway back and forth in the breeze…. Your hair is like that,”

Shit. Holy fuck. What was the right response to that?”

“Your braid is done,” Violet awkwardly draped it over Prisha’s right shoulder.

_Smooth._

“Thank you,” Prisha said, fiddling with the tail end of the braid. “You got it perfect. Not too tight,” She turned around on the bed, leaning against the wall. “Sorry you had to come into the middle of my tantrum. Was there something you needed from me?”

_Uuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhh………_

“Dishes,” Violet blurted out. “Omar wanted me to bring your dishes down if you were done with them,”

“Oh, yes, of course. Could you tell him thank you for me? His cooking is seriously amazing. The best I’ve had in years,”

“He’ll be happy to hear that,” Violet reached out to grab the small pile of dishes, shuffling backwards toward the door. “I’ll leave so you can sleep now,”

“Alright. And Violet?”

“Yeah?”

Prisha was looking out of the boarded-up window as though unsure what the right words were. “Thank you. For dropping by. It helped,”

“Anytime,” With that, Violet was out the door and rushing down the hall before anyone spotted her. She was…. glad. Dropping by was the right choice after all.


End file.
